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Reflections on Montgomery, Alabama
n late June 2024, a group of ten Coronado and San Diego residents took a 24-hour trip to Montgomery, Alabama, coordinated in conjunction with the Coronado Historical Association. The group, known as the Coronado Community Remembrance Coalition, went to visit the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which honors victims of racial terror lynchings. The trip was in preparation for an upcoming remembrance ceremony that will be held in honor of Coronado resident Alton Collier, who was the victim of a racial terror lynching in 1946. Born in Luling, Texas, in 1920, Alton Collier moved to Coronado in 1944. He first worked as a cement worker at Naval Air Station North Island, and later worked for the Hotel Del Coronado doing cement finishing work as a Union member of the American Federation of Labor. At approximately 8:20 p.m., on Saturday, April 27th, 1946, Collier boarded the ferry in Coronado to pick up some items from Ferris’s Department Store in downtown San Diego before returning to his residence on Alameda Blvd. Soon after the ferry departed, Collier was violently pursued by two Naval Reserve sailors, Freddie Leroy Johnson and Otis Reed Gilbert. The altercation ended with Alton Collier being thrown overboard. Despite witness statements that he cried for help, the ferry threw a life ring but did not stop. On May 4th, a week after the incident, Collier’s body washed ashore on North Island, Coronado. The incident was reported as a “suicidal” drowning by the coroner. Collier’s wife, Georgia, later filed suit in San Diego Superior Court, suing The San Diego & Coronado Ferry Co. as well as her husband’s assailants. The court case was dismissed on July 1, 1948, “with prejudice as to all defendants.” Johnson and Gilbert never faced any criminal charges. Alton Collier’s story was first researched by local historian Kevin Ashley, who published his findings on Substack. Later, Collier’s story was shared in the Coronado Historical Association’s exhibit, An Island Looks Back: Uncovering Coronado’s Hidden AfricanAmerican History. Thanks to Ashley’s research, Collier has been added to EJI’s Lynching in America report. At the remembrance event, soil from the ferry landing will be collected and sent to the Legacy Museum to be displayed in a jar alongside soil that represents more than 800 other lynching victims from across the United States. The following reflections come from members of the Coalition who traveled to Montgomery this summer.
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